@veehee - accepted students days are what I’m looking forward to. I think they will really help D figure out the best fit.
@pinkmomagain my daughter wants to do sculpture major with illustration minor.
My daughter is looking at sculpture and illustration as well! Maybe we will all meet at accepted student days! great insight everyone, thank you.
@mtmom2014 , that would be cool !
I second @JBStillFlying remark about the parents posting on this thread. I started on college confidential by joining the Parents of HS Class 2017 and there are very invested parents there, their kids applying and being accepted at Harvard, and other IVY’s. I started this thread because I felt like art school application is so different, it is better to have it’s own thread, but the point is that the parents and the kids represented here are not representative of the majority of applicants. I am not surprised by the success all our kids have 
@pinkmomagain I have an illustration daughter who is also a senior. She’s waiting to hear back from RISD and MICA. She was already accepted to SVA, Pratt, Parsons and CIA…but we haven’t visited the NYC schools yet. I’m new to this site as well, and am thankful for the inside info. Good luck to your daughter!
@neapmom - how exciting! What is your daughter’s preference? Will she be attending admitted students days for the NYC schools?
@pinkmomagain - she really wants to be in NYC. SVA is her first choice without having visited any of them…mainly based on current student work. Plus, she may want to play a little in animation and SVA alum are known for that. We’ll see. I haven’t seen all of the admitted students days listed for those schools yet, but have more research to do. Decent housing will play a role in our decision as we’re from Ohio and I want her to feel comfortable in her new home away from home since visits back to our home won’t be that often.
My best friend lives in NYC, and that is a HUGE plus for SVA, because she is like a second mom to my daughter. My other 2 daughters went to school 30 minutes away… this will be ROUGH!! I know for sure she will be 9 hours away (SCAD and SAIC are that far, opposite directions). LA is so FAR… kinda hoping for NYC!
I thought I’d stop by and check in now that my daughter has finished her first semester at Mica. We rode the art school admissions roller coaster. It all came down to merit money in the end. Fortunately, thanks to their generosity and persistence, my daughter ended up at Mica and she is very happy! I really love Baltimore- it’s quirky and funky. It feels like a small town, and is easy to access from the school. Mica has a beautiful campus with a nurturing community. We didn’t like saic or risd for undergrad bc they felt cutthroat, and it wasn’t the vibe she was seeking for undergrad. Saic is a wonderful school, and I think she would love it for graduate school. She also loved Tyler, but no funds were offered. At any rate, our journey ended well and we are very happy;)
Hello all I’m applying to pratt too, well I have applied but since the portfolio dosen"t have to be turned in tell the 19th I’ve been working on it. I wanted to ask for any last minute tips but the thing is I’m applying under the writing program and all the other tips i’ve found delt with other forms of art school portfolios except for writing. It almost seems like it dosent exist. So if anyone could give me advise to make my portfolio that much better It’d be appreciated.
@Pahalia, the best guidelines and recommendations you can receive would be those listed on the portfolio submission section of the Pratt admission website. If you follow those faithfully, you will have a leg up on the admissions front (you have no idea how many creatives decide to invent their own style of portfolio and DON’T read the instructions LOL).
Other than that, many of the general tips would apply to writing as well as visual: opt for quality over quantity or volume, be versatile, make sure your work is original and reflects YOUR style, etc.
Good luck to you!
Thank you, you have no idea how much that helped I’ll definitely take your advice.
My D is focused on illustration too, so I would love to hear more from those familiar with that field as well! She has applied to Parsons, Pratt, MassArt, Tufts/SMFA, VCU, and U of Denver. Parsons, Denver and MassArt accepted and offered generous merit, approx 50% of COA; VCU accepted but no word on merit until (I think?) April; waiting to hear from the others. Personally I was very impressed with Denver as a school and art program, but I’m pretty sure D is leaning to Parsons or Pratt after having visited all three (I did not see the NYC schools myself). D loved Parsons and Pratt and is convinced NYC is the place to be. I know so little about this field it’s hard for me to evaluate, but I would love anyone else’s view on the strength of those programs not only for illustration but also broader academic strength. Thanks very much!
@WhoDeyKC my D liked Pratt when we visited and I felt it was a stronger academic school than many other art schools while still maintaining the focus on the arts. They gave her great merit aid based on her grades and tests scores so that seemed to also indicate they wanted students who were good at art and school.
The Illustration major is under a ComD degree so they have two tracks you could call them (one is graphic design and the other is Illustration) that way students get a good overview.
She ultimately decided on going to Temple’s Tyler program because she wanted a university experience and a bigger campus. But she and I liked Pratt a lot. The campus is gated so it’s relatively safe especially at night. The area was still a bit sketchy but is definitely being gentrified (as most of Brooklyn is) and the people we met were all very nice.
Best of luck!
My D15 is a sophomore in the ComD program at Pratt and loves it. ComD at Pratt is unique and that’s what really attracted her to the school. According to Pratt, the lines have been blurring among the “disciplines” of illustration, GD and Advertising, especially given the increased reliance on digital media, so within the ComD major they give you training in all three. The real “discipline” is Communication Design - the “sub-discipline” or field is Illustration or GD or Advertising Art, with really no distinct lines separating one from the other once you get out into the work world.
The way, then, to distinguish among the three is more of a conceptual than a practical construct: Illustration is about telling the story primarily with the picture, GD is adding text to the picture (i.e. telling the story with words and images) and Ad Art layers on the psychological element in order to influence thought and behavior (i.e. telling the story using words and images in a manner that persuades). But all three are about the management of information: your concentration (illustration vs. GD vs. Ad Art) will be more about your particular angle or your style of information management (for instance, you like pictures vs. you like working with layout and text vs. you like logo design). But you aren’t pigeonholed into one segregated field because, again, in the real world there isn’t a practical line where one ends and the other begins - it’s all about communicating the information and demand is increasing for those who can work well in all three categories.
Here is the website: http://prattcomd.com
The way the curriculum works is that you do a ComD foundation year as a sophomore, and everyone takes the same core studios: Vis Com (conceptual studio), Design Procedures, Typography, Imaging and Illustration. The Illustration concentrators will also take another required course while the GD and Ad Art kids will take a studio elective. It’s a very intense year and my D15 told me her workload increased significantly from foundation year. They teach to industry standards so all your work is a presentation to the class, rather than the traditional critique. You are assessed in your presentation skills as well as your project!
Beginning Junior year, the students break into their various concentrations and take advanced studios in those. As a GD concentrator D15 will also be doing package design, some ad art, more typography (of course), and needs to take a printmaking elective (which I think she’s doing this year, thus bumping her open studio elective to later on when she’s a junior or senior) as well as a film or video elective.
It’s very possible to enroll thinking you will be doing illustration, but graduate with a concentration in Ad Art. Or think you will be doing Graphic Design, but discover that the way you want to tell your story is what the illustration concentration is focusing on (more on that below). The key thing about Pratt is that it sees these fields as very fluid and overlapping each other. That’s why a Pratt ComD graduate is a communications designer, rather than just a graphic designer or illustrator or advertising art director.
To me, Illustration as described is the specialty that is the most “breakout” compared to conventional thinking. A lot of kids go into illustration because they are talented painters and are attracted to something “practical” that still allows them to express themselves through their paintings. However, Pratt’s training is different in two ways: 1) they say illustration is “information specific” not “medium specific”. The goal is to get the information out through pictures in the most effective manner. Oftentimes that will mean digital media, btw. So you have to be very used to working with a variety of tools. 2) they distinguish illustration from “fine art” by explaining that illustrators don’t have the same freedom that fine artists do to express themselves through their work. Illustration is about solving the problem and has a functional rather than expressive outcome: in other words, it’s a design discipline. Another way of thinking about it is that as an illustrator you are often telling someone else’s story, not your own (unless you are an author, of course).
In addition to your major, you need to take a required number of credits in Math or Science, World Civ., and lots of art history (of course). There are other liberal arts electives too, I think. Pratt gives very few transfer credits for AP. My D15 came in there with a 5 on her B/C calculus test and they only waived one course of Math or Science! Nothing for APUSH or Euro or US Gov. And they only accept AP Lang & Comp (not Lit and Comp) and waive you out of the basic Freshman Lit. course. You are still on the hook for taking Freshman Lit. - you just get bumped into a more advanced course.
Hope this explanation helps!
For those of you who are familiar with Scholastic Art and Write competition, the regional results are in. My daughter got gold key for her portfolio with juror’s choice portfolio. Si also got a few more gold and silver keys, as well as an American Vision Award nominee. I was wondering if it would be helpful to let the schools she applied to know about these awards. Or maybe it does not matter until the national results are in? Kansas gave her 22K/year, just like Pratt, and SAIC. Still waiting to hear from MICA.
@Isichitiu many schools will have specific scholarships attached to Gold Key so yes - let them know ASAP. Info. should be on the websites but I’d let every school know just in case they have a separate, unadvertised award for Gold Key winners. Alternatively (or also?), they may up her other merit awards.
Congrats to her!
It couldn’t hurt to let her schools know she won regional awards from Scholastic. SAIC automatically upped my daughter’s merit sometime after the national results came in the year she applied, so perhaps they get a list? Congratulations to your daughter!
Congrats! Definitely let the schools know about her awards. I believe MICA offers a scholarship specifically for the Scholastic Awards.